In his 2009 book "Unreported Corrupt Relationship between Japanese Media and Police," muckraking freelance journalist Yu Terasawa says Japanese newspapers' circulation scandals have been covered up due to cozy ties between Japanese media and police through controversial kisha clubs.  Japanese police are teaming up with reporters at kisha clubs to exclude magazine reporters and freelance … Continue reading “Corrupt Relationship” between Japanese Media and Police – Yu Terasawa

In 2000, Akira Uozumi, a former Kyodo News agency reporter, published a biography of Tsuneo Watanabe, Yomiuri newspaper's media baron. The title of the book from publisher Kodansha is "Watanabe Tsuneo – Media to Kenryoku” (Tsuneo Watanabe – Media and Power). Mr. Uozumi has produced some best-selling books, and this is one of them. I first … Continue reading “Yomiuri’s 10-million-copy claim is a charade”

Reporters Without Borders ranks Japan as the 72nd out of a total of 180 countries in its 2017 World Press Freedom Index. Japan was ranked at 11 in the 2010 index, 22 in the 2011/2012 index, 53 in 2013, 59 in 2014, 61 in 2015 and 72 in 2016. [The Liberal Democratic Party's Shinzo Abe … Continue reading Japan is ranked at 72 in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index. It was at 11 in 2010.

[Copies of major newspapers are given away for free at hundreds of hotels in Japan. Some sales people say these newspapers have "no value."] Decades-old media scandal pressed at Japanese parliament, court By Takehiko Kambayashi, dpa Tokyo (dpa) – A lawmaker in the Japanese parliament recently grilled government officials over an ongoing newspaper fraud scandal … Continue reading FOR DECADES, Japanese newspapers have been accused of fabricating circulation figures.

Japanese media "afflict the afflicted and comfort the comfortable" (dpa first published this piece.) Shunsuke Yamaoka is an investigative journalist and author who founded the internet news portal Access Journal. Yamaoka criticizes the country's major media for acting as a cheerleader for big business and government through infamous kisha clubs. The approval ratings of Japanese … Continue reading Japan’s major media “afflict the afflicted and comfort the comfortable”

“It is Japanese media that have hampered serious journalists’ work,” says Yu Terasawa, a veteran investigative journalist and author of many books on controversial kisha clubs and police corruption. "Founded in the Meiji era (1868-1912), Japan’s Kisha Club has since served as the government’s PR department. Public offices have provided media companies with a spacious … Continue reading Japanese media’s cozy relationship with authorities, big business through controversial “kisha clubs,” or an “information cartel”

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